IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature – Intertextuality: Connecting Texts Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs – the IB holds copyright in its own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available through your school or the IB store.

This practice set covers Intertextuality: connecting texts, the third syllabus component of IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature, at SL and HL. It follows the current IB subject brief (first assessments for SL and HL 2021).

Learn the unit first with the Intertextuality study guide and the revision notes. Course links: Language and Literature hub · printable checklist.

Questions

1. Define allusion and parody, and state one difference between them. [2]

Passage A – poem (original text written for Marlbridge)

Recipe for an Empty House

Serves one. Preparation time: eighteen years.

Take one house, still warm. Remove two teenagers, one at a time, the second in late September. Set aside their shoes by the door. Do not put them away. Reduce the noise slowly over several weeks until only the fridge is speaking. Add a dog, if available, to taste. Season with phone calls on Sundays. Leave to stand. It will not set.

2. Identify two conventions of a recipe that Passage A uses. Support each with a quotation. [2]

3. Explain how the recipe form shapes the reader’s response to the poem’s subject. Refer to at least two quotations. [4]

Passage B – print advert (original text written for Marlbridge; the brand and people are invented)

LOCAL WOMAN SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT FOR FIRST TIME IN YEARS

By our Sleep Correspondent

Residents of Elm Road were stunned this week when Priya Nandy, 44, woke at 7 a.m. feeling “completely rested”. Ms Nandy, a nurse who works shifts, had struggled to sleep for most of the past decade.

“I tried everything,” she told reporters. “Then I switched to a Brackenby Cloudrest mattress. The first night I didn’t wake once.”

Experts say the right mattress can make a real difference. Neighbours have reportedly asked to borrow it.

Brackenby Cloudrest. Sleep is news. Try one free for 100 nights at any Brackenby store.

4. Identify three conventions of a news report that Passage B borrows. [3]

5. Explain two reasons why the advertiser presents Passage B as a news report. Use quotations. [4]

6. Identify where Passage B reveals its real text type, and explain the effect of placing this at the end. [2]

Passage C – two texts

Text C1. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18, lines 1–4 (published 1609):

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Text C2. Travel advert (original text written for Marlbridge; the island is invented):

Shall we compare thee to a summer’s day? On the Isle of Wenlow, we’d rather show you one. Our winds are gentle, and our season runs from May to October. Book a ferry before 30 April and save on your crossing. Isle of Wenlow. More lovely. More temperate.

7. Refer to Text C1 and Text C2.

(a) Identify the words Text C2 quotes, or adapts, from Text C1 in its headline. [1] (b) Explain how Text C2 changes the meaning of the lines it borrows from Text C1. [3]

8. Is Passage B better described as a parody or a pastiche of a news report? Justify your answer with evidence. [3]

9. Write one comparative sentence that connects Passage A and Text C2, keeping evidence from both texts in the same sentence. [3]

10. Guided analysis: How does Passage B use the conventions of another text type to persuade its audience? Write a plan with a thesis and three analytical points, each with evidence. [8]

11. Comparison plan: Compare how Passage A and Passage C borrow from other texts, and to what effect. Give a thesis, three points of comparison, and a sentence explaining what the comparison reveals. [8]

Answers

1. An allusion is a brief, indirect reference to another text, person or event that the reader is expected to recognise. [1] A parody imitates the style or form of a source in an exaggerated way in order to mock it; unlike an allusion, it imitates at length and has a target it criticises. [1] Examiner insight: A definition earns credit only if it separates the two terms; “both refer to another text” describes what they share, not how they differ.

2. Any two, each with a quotation: a servings and time line (“Serves one. Preparation time: eighteen years”) [1]; imperative verbs in sequence (“Take”, “Remove”, “Leave to stand”) or cooking terms (“Reduce”, “to taste”, “Season”) [1]. Examiner insight: An “identify” question with “support” needs the quotation as well as the label; a correct convention with no evidence is incomplete.

3. The recipe form is practical and controlled, while the subject, children leaving home, is emotional. [1] The instructions try to manage loss step by step, as in “Remove two teenagers, one at a time”, which makes the speaker sound calm but numb. [1] The form breaks down where feeling breaks through: “Do not put them away” refuses the tidy logic of a recipe. [1] The last line, “It will not set”, denies the finished result a recipe promises, so the reader feels the loss is unresolved. [1] Examiner insight: Strong answers explain the gap between the borrowed form and the real subject; weak answers stop at “the poet uses a recipe structure”.

4. Any three: a headline in capitals (“LOCAL WOMAN SLEEPS…”) [1]; a byline (“By our Sleep Correspondent”) [1]; a lead paragraph giving who, where and when, with the person’s age (“Priya Nandy, 44”), or quotations attributed with “she told reporters” [1]. Examiner insight: Three different conventions are needed; two examples of the same feature, such as two quotations, earn one mark.

5. News reports are read as factual, so the product claim borrows the credibility of reporting [1]: the testimonial “I didn’t wake once” reads as a witness statement, not a sales line. [1] The form also creates humour by treating an everyday event as major news [1]: “Residents of Elm Road were stunned” exaggerates a good night’s sleep, making the advert memorable. [1] Examiner insight: Each reason needs its own quotation; one quotation stretched across two reasons usually earns the explanation mark only once.

6. The final italic line gives the brand name, slogan and free-trial offer (“Try one free for 100 nights”), which are advert conventions. [1] Placing them last means the reader absorbs the “story” before realising it is selling, so the claim is accepted before any resistance to advertising begins. [1] Examiner insight: “Explain the effect” needs a consequence for the reader, not just the location of the feature.

7. (a) “Shall we compare thee to a summer’s day?”, adapted from “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” [1] (b) In Text C1 the summer’s day is the lesser thing: the beloved is “more lovely”, and summer has “Rough winds” and too short a “lease”. [1] Text C2 answers those complaints (“Our winds are gentle”; a season “from May to October”), so the island’s summer now wins the comparison. [1] The slogan “More lovely. More temperate.” moves the praise from a person to a place, turning a love poem into a courtship of the tourist and flattering readers who recognise the source. [1] Examiner insight: Credit goes to what the borrowing changes; answers that only explain Sonnet 18 itself miss the question.

8. Pastiche is the better description: Passage B imitates news conventions closely but does not criticise journalism. [1] Its real aim is to sell, shown by the closing line “Try one free for 100 nights”. [1] There is a light parodic edge, since “stunned” mocks sensational local headlines, but this humour serves the product rather than attacking the news. [1] (Accept an argued “parody”.) Examiner insight: Either label can score; marks go to a clear judgement tested against evidence, not to the label alone.

9. Model: Both texts borrow a form from outside their own type, but where the poem in Passage A takes the practical recipe (“Leave to stand”) to express grief, the advert in Text C2 takes a love sonnet (“Shall we compare thee”) to sell a holiday. Credit: a clear point of connection [1]; precise evidence from Passage A [1] and from Text C2 [1] in one sentence. Examiner insight: Evidence from only one text, or two sentences joined by “also”, does not show comparison.

10. This task is marked here with indicative points. A real Paper 1 guided analysis is marked holistically against the IB criteria, not point by point. Model thesis: The advert disguises a sales pitch as a local news story so that its claim arrives with the authority of reported fact. [1]

• Point 1 – the headline and byline announce news, not advertising [1], with “LOCAL WOMAN SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT” and “By our Sleep Correspondent” [1]; the invented job title is a joke that signals the borrowing to alert readers. [1]
• Point 2 – the lead paragraph’s factual details (name, age, street, job) make the customer seem real and ordinary [1]; “a nurse who works shifts” invites sympathy and trust. [1]
• Point 3 – vague attribution (“Experts say”, “reportedly”) imitates news sourcing without naming anyone, so the claim sounds supported but cannot be checked. [1]
• Conclusion links the three points to purpose: the form lowers resistance until the final call to action. [1] Examiner insight: The strongest plans keep every point tied to the guiding question (“to persuade”); points that only describe news features, without saying how they persuade, drift from the question.

11. Indicative points only; a real comparative task is marked holistically against the IB criteria. Model thesis: Both texts borrow a familiar form, but in opposite directions: the literary text takes a non-literary form to hold back feeling, while the non-literary text takes a literary form to add prestige. [1]

• Point 1 (direction of borrowing) – Passage A imports the recipe (“Serves one”) [1]; Text C2 imports Sonnet 18’s opening line and its phrase “more lovely and more temperate”. [1]
• Point 2 (kept vs changed) – Passage A keeps the recipe’s imperatives but breaks its promise of a result (“It will not set”) [1]; Text C2 keeps Shakespeare’s words but reverses his verdict on summer. [1]
• Point 3 (effect on reader) – Passage A makes the reader feel the strain between control and grief [1]; Text C2 rewards the reader who recognises the source, flattering them into the role of the beloved. [1]
• What it reveals: borrowing a form always brings the reader’s expectations with it, and each text succeeds by either fulfilling or frustrating them. [1] Examiner insight: Woven points, with both texts in each point, show comparison; a plan that covers Passage A in full and then Passage C leaves the connection unargued.

Where marks are usually lost

• Naming a convention or intertext with no quotation to support it.
• Explaining the source text (such as Sonnet 18) instead of what the new text does with it.
• Giving two examples of one convention when the question asks for different conventions.
• Calling a text a parody without saying what it mocks.
• Comparing in blocks, one text after the other, instead of weaving both into each point.
• Losing the guiding question in an extended answer and drifting into general description.
• Long, dropped-in quotations instead of short phrases embedded in your own sentence.

Next steps

• Intertextuality revision notes
• Intertextuality study guide
• Language and Literature course hub
• Printable checklist
• All free 10-minute diagnostics
• Book a free trial class

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Language A: language and literature, first assessments for SL and HL 2021 (2019).